If you’re going to grow your own from seed, you’ll need to start them indoors eight to 10 weeks before the average last frost date in spring for your area. Seed to harvest usually takes between 100 and 120 days, so timing is key. While the fruit of this plant takes many different forms, each cultivar or hybrid comes from the same species, S. Thankfully the people of Toledo were right about eggplant, yes? Who else feels bad that Gerard missed out on this delectable treat? He finishes his treatise on eggplants with this word of advice: “It is therefore better to esteem this plant and have it in the garden for your pleasure and the rarenesse thereof, than for any vertue or good qualities yet knowne.” This, despite acknowledging that “The people of Toledo eat them with great devotion.” This is perhaps why Gerard called eggplant the “Madde Apple,” and why he writes, “doubtlesse these Apples have a mischievous qualitie, the use whereof is utterly to bee forsaken.” You can see where the plant got its name! The reference to the “great Nightshade” is telling, because some people believed that eggplant was poisonous like Atropa belladonna, or “deadly nightshade,” another member of the same plant family. “Raging Apples hath a round stalke of two foot high, divided into sundry branches….the floures of a white colour, and sometimes changing into purple, made of six parts wide open like a star… which being past, the fruit comes in place, set in a cornered cup or huske after the manner of great Nightshade, great and somewhat long, of the bignesse of a Swans egge.” In his 1597 book, Gerard’s Herball, the English herbalist Thomas Gerard listed it as the “Madde Apple,” and wrote this in his description: Over time, the fruit made its way to Europe, appearing in various writings and illustrations of the Medieval era and before. In “History and Iconography of Eggplant,” an article written for Chronica Horticulturae, the journal of the International Society for Horticultural Science, Marie-Christine Daunay and Jules Janick explain that “Eggplant was domesticated from wild forms in the Indo-Burma region with indications that it was cultivated in antiquity.”ĭaunay, a French scientist who specializes in vegetables in the Solanaceae family and eggplant in particular, and Janick, a professor of horticulture at Indiana’s Purdue University, also write that eggplant is probably native to a wide region encompassing India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and China, and can be found growing wild in all these places. Pick the next ones earlier.People have appreciated the versatile nature of eggplant for thousands of years. If, when sliced open, the seeds inside are brown or hard, you've waited a little too long and the fruit has passed its peak of quality. Remove the eggplant with a sharp knife or scissors, taking a little bit of stem along with the fruit. The stones - ideally each the size of a loaf of bread - will absorb heat during the day and radiate it back during the night.Įggplants may be harvested young - their flavor will be the same as full-size fruits. You may also try placing a few large dark-colored rocks near the plants. Eggplant respond well to this kind of TLC. The fabric will keep bugs at bay, while also raising the soil and air temperature by several degrees. You can protect and pamper your eggplants by setting up wire hoops and growing them under a garden fabric (row cover). Aphids, flea beetles and tomato hornworms will also attack eggplant if given a chance. Left unchecked, the fat orange larvae will quickly devour the leaves. Watch for orange egg masses on the underside of the leaves, and crush them (or scratch them off with a fingernail) before the larvae hatch. In northern gardens, each plant will produce between 4 to 6 fruits southern gardeners can expect twice that yield.Ĭolorado potato beetles love eggplants even more than potatoes. A slightly acidic soil, pH from 5.8 to 6.8 is favored. Like peppers, eggplants do best in soil that is not too high in nitrogen. A cold snap in early summer, with temperatures down in the sixties, will stunt an eggplant and reduce its productivity for the duration of the season. ![]() Put the plants into the garden when the soil temperature reaches 70 degrees. If starting your own seedlings, start seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks before planting them outside. The seeds will germinate in 6 days at a soil temperature of 85 degrees it takes 12 days at 70 degrees. They are in the same plant family as peppers, potatoes and tomatoes but are quite a bit fussier to grow than their relatives.Įggplants need consistent heat, from seed germination right to harvest. Some are long and thin, others are short and portly. They range in color from glossy purple to pure white, and in size from chicken eggs to dinosaur eggs.
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